Getting Our Heroes Back
by klainebowsandpercabeth
Summary: "Obviously, once they got out of Tartarus, Annabeth and Percy were different. They had survived monster territory, a land worse than hell." My thoughts of Percy and Annabeth's recovery from Tartarus. Cover image by Burdge-Bug on deviantArt. Rated T because I'm paranoid.


**Contains spoilers for House of Hades!**

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Obviously, once they got out of Tartarus, Annabeth and Percy were different. They had survived monster territory, a land worse than hell. There were nights when no one on the Argo II got any sleep. Nights where Percy would wake up to Annabeth thrashing around in her bed, whimpering about Arachne, the arai and the other terrors of Tartarus. He'd hold her, assuring her that he was there, and that he wasn't going anywhere. Other nights, it would be Percy who would wake up screaming. Nights like this, the entire crew couldn't sleep. These were their leaders, their anchors. Percy and Annabeth had the most experience in quests and saving the world than anyone they knew.

The first night after they left the infirmary, they tried to sleep in their separate beds, in their separate rooms on opposite sides of the boat. That lasted for less than an hour.

_The rest of the seven were under the deck of the Argo II, eating dinner and pretending to be interested in their food, or in watching the satyrs play an admittedly epic game of volleyball with the Demeter kids through the live-stream of Camp. It was Percy and Annabeth's first night out of the infirmary, and they were all silent, listening intently for any sign of distress. They had only stayed in the infirmary for a few days, and the crew had a feeling that the two wanted to make things feel more normal. It was only eight, but the two had decided to retire early, not that anyone blamed them._

_Jason broke the silence, "Guys, we don't need to babysit them. It's not going to do anything but piss them off. Percy and Annabeth are the strongest demigods I know. If anyone can come from Tartarus and recover, it's them."_

_Piper fiddled with one of her braids, nodding. "Jason's right. They'll be-"_

_She was interrupted by a strangled cry, and a voice yelling, "Annabeth!" They all recognized the voice- it was Percy's. From what they understood, there were some monsters in Tartarus that had temporarily cursed Annabeth into believing that Percy had abandoned her, and the memory of her wandering around, hurt and helpless, had torn the son of Poseidon to shreds._

_The five demigods were immediately to their feet, Leo and Hazel managing to run up the narrow staircase side by side. They got up to the deck that housed living quarters to see Annabeth, a blonde blur in pajamas, darting as quickly as her recently healed ankle would allow, to Percy's room._

_Through the doorway, they saw Percy, pale, clammy and shaky, being comforted by Annabeth. She had perched herself on his legs, and had a hand on his cheek, wiping a stray tear off his face. None of them could hear exactly what she was saying, but they understood the gist of it. Probably something along the lines of 'I'm here,' 'don't worry' and 'I love you.'_

_Percy's normally bright, cheerful, sea green eyes were dark, like the ocean during a storm, and he looked terrified._

_Leo knew that expression. It appeared on Leo's face quite often. Percy had had a nightmare. Being a demigod, Leo knew all about those, he had nightmares about the night his mom died quite often. But he knew that this was about Tartarus, and that was something Leo didn't come close to understanding. Percy and Annabeth had given them all a brief summary of their experience, but no one pried for details._

_Annabeth looked out of the room at her friends, and gave them a sad smile, her gray eyes still shattered. She kissed Percy's lips, and held up her index finger, starting to slip off his lap but he shook his head, and grabbed her hand, following her out of his quarters._

_"Hey guys," he mumbled, his voice cracking. He ran his hand through his unruly black hair and attempted a smirk. "I… I'm fine. Nightmares."_

_Hazel, looking like she was about to cry, threw herself at him, hugging him tight. "We love you, you know that?"_

_He nodded and she kissed his cheek, padding back over to Frank._

_Without another word, Annabeth had led him down the hall to her room, and shut the door, mouthing 'thanks' to the group._

The rest of the seven were concerned, but they remembered Nico after he got back. He had to recover by himself. Of course, he had Hazel to help him, but there wasn't anyone who understood what he went through. There was still something wrong with him, something more than Tartarus, but at the moment, the crew was a little preoccupied by Percy and Annabeth. Plus, he was busy shadow traveling Reyna, Coach Hedge and the Athena Parthenos across the world.

At least Percy and Annabeth had each other. And they had Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank- even Leo tried to help out by forging Annabeth a new knife, although he wasn't sure if it made her feel better or worse.

For a while, wherever one was, the other followed. And it was understandable; in Tartarus, all they'd had was each other (and a Titan named Bob, but that was another story), and they had gotten used to going to the other for comfort and support. They went to bed together, held hands almost constantly, and spent a lot of time in the stables. Percy and Annabeth stayed quiet, not cracking jokes and not bickering nearly as much as they used to.

At first, no one noticed. But slowly, the light returned to their eyes. They smiled, Percy started drinking blue coke again, and one day, Annabeth even started going on about how beautiful she thought Victorian architecture was, complete with a wild grin, and spastic hand gestures. Percy's smile had been ear to ear during the one-sided conversation.

They laughed- real, hearty laughs. And everything almost seemed almost normal again. Well- besides the fact that they had a matter of days before a giant dirt lady planned to take over the world, and they were the only ones who could stop her.

There were still scars, physical, visible ones, and psychological ones. But the scars had faded slightly. And Olympus had its heroes back.

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**A/N: I wrote angst.. What is this madness? Anyways, this started out with a completely different plot, in fact, it was supposed to be Annabeth/Piper/Hazel friendship. But then my Percabeth feels exploded all over my keyboard. Oops. I hope you don't mind too much.**

**I'm working on a new chapter of Meet Percabeth too, so don't worry. Its Halloween themed as well! (If anyone has been to the Bayville Scream Park, PM me…) So, I hope you like this, and please review!**

**-Emily**


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